To Anyone Who Dreams of Building The Next Unicorn

Let’s build the next unicorn together.

If you’ve ever fantasized about building a multi-billion-dollar platform that will disrupt your industry, then this article is for you.

How many times have you closed your eyes and dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur, the next Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban?

You’re in your late forties. A hard worker, you’ve put in the sweat and hours to claim your rung on the corporate ladder. You’ve reached a stage in your career where stimulation and adrenalin have long been replaced by a comfortable routine. You’re finally spending more time with your family. You’re embracing work-life balance…

But it’s not who you are. Routine isn’t what got you here. You’re a born winner, who thrives on challenges, and early retirement is just not your style.

How often have you wasted time and effort in the workplace, following the same old legacy processes that you know are outdated?

I bet that you even have an idea that you know could revolutionize your industry. Maybe a cloud-based platform that will use AI to connect a community of people or a solution that will decrease transaction costs. Maybe a software that will help eliminate repetitive tasks or that will help you make decisions faster and more accurately through machine learning.

If only you could execute it right.

Here is where the doubt sets in. The complacency. The acceptance. It requires too much work, too much risk, you’re not twenty anymore. You would have to quit your day job to see it through, and then scour the globe looking for talented people who believe in your vision and who you can rely on.

How would you know how to architect the right solution to grow your business idea? What do you know about tech, about incubating companies, about growth marketing, about raising capital and preparing for an IPO… all you have is an idea.

You consider reaching out to traditional venture capitalists – but you’d need a proven business concept and decent revenues just to get a foot in the door. They would expect most of these revenues to come from large clients or at least repeat orders from highly satisfied customers. Venture Capitalists will ask about your entrepreneurial track record, about your marketing and sales strategy. Then they will scrutinize your technology, how unique it is, how many patents you have registered, who your strategic partners are, in an attempt to mitigate their exposure. And even if you jump through all of these hurdles, and they do buy into your vision, you’ll have to exchange a huge chunk of equity and face losing the effective control of your baby.

You’re out of options, and chances are that in a few years, someone else in the same industry, facing the same problems, will have the same idea. They might even dare to do something about it. They will see their dream through and disrupt your industry. Hopefully following this disruption, you will still get to keep your job. You might even get that early retirement after all. You’ll be sat on the sidelines as your idea turns into a unicorn, telling everyone how you thought of it first.

Or, we can change the world together.

At IMS Digital Ventures, our mission is to transform your dream into reality while sharing the risks and rewards. If we believe in your vision and your commitment, we will help you architect and build it. By partnering with the most advanced digital transformation firm in Hong Kong, your start-up will get access to world-class tools, innovating engineers, data-driven marketers and seasoned M&A experts who will work with you to bring your vision to life.

Together we’ll build a roadmap to success; phasing your project in cost-effective stages and using the cash flow we generate from early wins to fuel future ambitions. This isn’t a marriage of skills, it’s a match made in heaven and it’s the fastest, safest, surest way to realize your dream.

With a strategic partner like IMS, investors and future clients will immediately perceive you differently and this will impact your valuation in later stages.

The best part is that you won’t need to leave your day job until you are ready: we will work around your schedule to organize strategic meetings in your free time. I bet you can already sense the thrill of launching a successful platform without having to execute your vision out of your parents’ garage.

I guess that’s the advantage of being an industry expert and not twenty years old anymore.

About the Author

After completing his training in M&A at Skadden Arps, Anastasios Papadopoulos founded Integrated Management Systems in 2016 and played a key strategic role in positioning the company as one of the leading Digital Transformation Agencies in Hong Kong.

He brings with him his experience in M&A and Tech, and also founded IMS Digital Ventures: the innovation, incubation, and investment arm of IMS and Hong Kong’s first corporate venturing firm that launches and invests in disruptive businesses with Asia’s largest corporations.

Anastasios Papadopoulos read Law in France and in the UK and holds a Management degree from HEC Paris.